Thunder - Clouis OneShot
by GoofyGomez
Summary: Clementine and Louis can't sleep due to the storm. What else can they do but play 20 questions? Rated T for strong language and depiction of violence.


Clementine was woken up by a crack of thunder. She sat up, looking out the window. Outside, rain was pouring out of a grey sky, bright flashed lighting it up every few seconds. A few droplets seeped through the boards on the window, staining the wood a dark brown. Humidity stuck to her clothes like a cloth, causing her to sweat profusely.

She took off her denim jacket and set it aside. When she turned back around, she noticed something was missing; or rather, someone. Louis, who had fallen asleep next to her, was gone. Clem looked around frantically, only finding AJ sound asleep on his own bed. She got up, shivering when a gust of wind reached her bare arms, and placed a gentle hand on AJ's forehead.

He was sweating as well, so she slowly pulled back his covers. She didn't want to wake him so she left him like that, turning to the door. The intermittent flashes of lightning cast odd shadows on her decorations, namely the deer skull atop their door. She opened the door slowly and stepped out into the hallway, walking forward. By the time she got to the door to the outside, the breeze that seeped through the open windows made her regret having left her jacket in her room.

Stepping outside, she looked at the courtyard. The tables were soaking wet and the flag was waving madly in the wind. She could see the tree tops over the walls moving from side to side, and she wondered if one might fall from the force of the wind. Lightning cast enormous shadows on the admin building, and at points it seemed to be crashing down on the courtyard.

"Fancy seeing you here."

Louis's voice startled her and made her jump, looking to her right. Sitting on a stone bench was the dreaded boy wearing a sly grin on his face and his worn down trench coat. His hair was up in a bun, they way he wore it when he slept, and his smiling eyes shone in the dim light of night.

"Louis," she breathed, approaching him, "You scared the shit out of me."

"Sorry," he replied cheekily, "Couldn't sleep."

"Me neither," she said, sitting down beside him, "I never can during thunderstorms."

They looked over the railings, watching the thin lines of water cascading from the roof above. A bolt of lightning illuminated the sky above, followed by another crack of thunder. They watched in fascination the way the rain shifted its direction with the wind, thankfully never reaching them beneath the roof.

"It's beautiful, isn't it?" Louis whispered, coking his head to the side.

"I've never been able to enjoy them, really," commented Clementine, pursing her lips.

Louis turned his head to her feigning shock, "Why not?"

"Well, it's hard to enjoy a thunderstorm when you don't have a roof from which to enjoy it," she replied, extending a hand and running it through a thin stream of rainwater.

"I guess you're right," Louis conceded, awkwardly looking away and scratching the back of his head. "Well, it's nice to have you here with me. No one ever wants to appreciate them with me," he said, turning back to her.

"I can do that," said Clementine, smiling at him. She looked back at the rain and marveled at the way the trees seemed to dance with the rhythm of the wind. "It is beautiful when it's not pouring on you, I'll give you that."

"There you go," he quipped, patting her back. "Now we just need a good game."

"A game?"

"Well, yeah. We gotta pass the time somehow, right?"

"I guess…" she hesitated.

Louis pretended to think about it for a moment, scratching his chin dramatically. Snapping his fingers he said, "How about Truth or Dare?"

"Louis, it's raining outside, what kind of dares are we gonna do? Plus, everyone's sleeping"

He looked over the railing into the rain, frowning. "Alright, how about just questions? We can get to know each other, now that we're dating."

"I guess that would be nice," conceded Clem, raising her legs over the bench and facing Louis, who did the same.

"I'll start," said Louis, thinking hard, "Alright let's start with an easy one. What did you wanna be when you grew up? Before this shit, I mean."

Clementine thought about his question, racking her brain for an answer. What _did_ she want to be when she grew up? Pursing her lips, she said, "I think I wanted to be a vet."

"A vet?"

"Yeah. I loved animals back then, and I actually met one when this all started," she added, reminiscing about her conversations with Katjaa. "How about you, what did you want to be?"

Without hesitation, Louis said, "I wanted to be a train conductor."

"Really? I didn't take you for a conductor," she teased, jumping back when another thunder cracked in the sky.

"I know it's weird, but when my mom and I would go on train rides, I'd be so excited and I'd always ask to meet the conductor. She almost never let me, though."

"You know, Lee and I found a train a couple of months after the outbreak. We actually got to ride it, once Lee fixed it up."

"Wow, that's so cool," he breathed, picturing himself in his mind's eye at the front of a freighter. Shaking his head, he said, "Alright, my turn. Where did you use to live?"

"Georgia, born and raised," she said immediately, smiling. "That's also where I met Lee."

Louis said nothing, instead choosing to smile back at her, basking in her beauty. "Alright, your turn," he said after a moment.

Clem squinted, thinking hard. When she looked back at him, his smile gave her the perfect question. "How'd you lose that tooth?" she asked, pointing at his mouth.

He looked down instinctively, and chuckled. "I battled a tiger," he claimed.

"Sure you did," she teased, raising an eyebrow.

"Fought off four raiders?" he queried, tilting his head.

"Lou."

"Jumped off the admin building?"

"Louis!" she laughed, punching him playfully on the shoulder.

"Alright, alright," he conceded, lifting up his hands. "If you must know, I once tried to prank Marlon by scaring him when the rest of the class was coming back from a field trip. I was perched on a chair beside the door, about to jump him. But someone must have tipped him off and he moved to the side immediately."

He opened his mouth and showcased his missing tooth, "I hit my face on the edge of the shelf and got this."

"Wow, you were pretty dumb," she concluded, nodding decisively.

"First of all, ouch," he said, placing a hand over his heart mockingly.

"Alright, your turn, Tooth Fairy."

As he laughed he thought for a moment, pursing his lips when a thought came to his mind. He didn't say anything, staring blankly at her. "Come on, spit it out," she urged him.

Louis looked down, frowning as the question formed on his lips. "Did you have any siblings?"

"I didn't," he replied, shaking her head lightly. "I did use to make my babysitter play house with me."

"Did you, now?"

"I used to say she was my secret sister," she reminisced, smiling. "What about you?"

At the question, he turned away. The soft pattering of raindrops on the dirt filled the silence between them. As wind picked up Clem could hear the rustle of leaves from beyond the walls, and she followed Louis's gaze. He was looking in the direction of the graveyard, the shapes of crosses looming darkly over moulds of dirt. She looked back at him and whispered, "Louis?"

"Yeah?" he muttered, his brown eyes still fixed on the three crosses that decorated the makeshift graveyard.

"Are you okay?" her voice was barely above a whisper, afraid she might set him off if she raised it.

"I'm fine," he said, nodding softly. "I don't know why I asked you that."

"What happened, Louis?" she inquired, placing a comforting hand on his right forearm. His eyes met hers, and she suddenly saw something there she hadn't seen before: she saw darkness. A darkness she was all too familiar with at this point in her life.

Sighing, Louis nodded and looked up, staring at a point behind Clementine. "I used to," he said simply.

"What – What happened to them?"

He closed his eyes, small tears stinging his eyes as he tried to keep his composure. Clem's hand stroked his arm softly, her amber eyes offering whatever comfort they could. "His name was Sam. He was four years younger than me. We came to Ericson's together, after our parents died in a car crash."

"Oh, I didn't know that," she said, not able to contain herself. "I'm sorry."

"It's okay," he told her, the corners of his mouth curving up slightly despite himself. "Anyway, when the world went to shit, Sam was five. He was scared most of the time, and I did everything I could to keep his mind off the bad stuff."

"He used to love my dumb jokes, which is mostly why I kept making them," he added with a small smile. "About four years ago, he kept begging me to take him on a hunting trip. Aasim and I told him no every time. But on his tenth birthday, I wanted to indulge him."

Clem stared silently at Louis as the story unfolded, watching his expression closely. His brow creased when he mentioned the hunting trip, and he had to close his eyes to keep his composure. She placed a hand on his shoulder, nodding encouragingly at him.

"I took him outside one day when Aasim was sick. We walked for like four hours until we ran into a hanging walker on one of our traps. I improvised and told him that could be his birthday piñata." Clem giggled, making Louis look down at her and smile. It wasn't often that he got to make her genuinely laugh, so he appreciated those moments.

"I let him borrow 'Chairles', and he went to town. Smack, smack, smack!" He imitated the swinging of a bat in the air. A bolt of lightning cracked through the sky, followed up by a slap of thunder that rocked the shingles on the roof. As the sky lit up, Clem got a good look at the crosses, still barely visible through the rain. None of them seemed to have names carved on them, she realized.

"At one point, I needed to pee, so I let him at it for a moment," he continued, pulling Clem out of her thoughts. "But barely two minutes later…" he trailed off, his head hung low.

"Louis," she whispered, lifting his chin with her forefinger, "It's okay," she said simply.

Nodding, Louis continued. "I heard him screaming, and I ran to him. When I got there, the walker had a grip on his arm and was pulling him toward it. I tried to wrench him free, but it was faster and stronger than me." He breathed deeply, blinking rapidly to wipe the tears away.

"It bit him… right here," he choked, gesturing to his cheek. "I went to take a piss… and I was too fucking late to save my little brother," he spat bitterly, his eyes never meeting Clementine's gaze. She scooted closer, taking his shoulders and firmly pressing herself to him. In their soft embrace, Clem heard him sniffing loudly and her heart broke.

"Louis," she said, pulling away and looking into his eyes. "Look at me. What happened to Sam was not your fault, understand?"

"How do you know that, Clem?" he asked, a soft plea in his voice.

"I just know," she assured him, "I learned that the hard way. You can blame yourself all you want, but it won't make the pain any easier to deal with."

"But how can I live with myself knowing it was because of me that he was bit?" he inquired, frowning. "If I hadn't taken him outside with me, he might have still been here when you came along. He probably would have crushed on you, I'm sure," he added, trying to soften the intensity of his line of thought.

Clem smiled at him. Not because she thought it was funny, but because she appreciated what Louis was willing to endure for those he loved. Here he was, at his lowest point since she'd met him, and she could see he was still trying to make her smile. She didn't give herself enough moments to enjoy life nowadays, and most of the time she would even blame life itself.

"Regardless, what happened, happened." She raised her hands and cupped his face, planting a soft kiss on his lips. "It's not possible to go through life without unintentionally hurting anyone. You just have to hope that, at the end of the day, you've done more good than harm, and hope that there's a forgiving god."

Louis weighed her words, pursing his lips. His eyes darted from one side to the other, as if searching for words that were floating right in front of him, out of his reach. He looked to his side where the rain kept pouring over the courtyard, unhinged by the struggles of man. He looked beyond the courtyard at the mould of dirt that was his brother's grave, the ground becoming darker by the second.

He opened his mouth a couple of times, no words coming out. Finally, after another thunder roared overhead, he found his voice again. "When did you become so wise?" he said, smiling back at Clem.

Clem shrugged dismissively, pressing her forehead to his. "Guess I always have been," she teased.

"You might be right," he agreed, pecking her lips. "I'm sorry for being a downer, I just get emotional sometimes."

"Don't worry," she dismissed, smiling up at him. "I like this side of you, the one that doesn't make as many jokes and can open up."

"I can make more jokes if you really want," he assured her, smiling. "I already thought of three – Four! I just thought of a fourth."

Shaking her head, Clem kissed him again to shut him up. She wondered what other secrets he harbored in that mind of his, and looked up into his eyes. The darkness she'd seen before had somehow faded, replaced by a shining light that seemed to bring out the chocolate of his eyes. There wasn't much that fazed Clementine, and she would be damned before the man he loved suffered such times alone.


End file.
